Top Ten Books for a 2025 Christmas song tag

Top Ten Books
for a 2025 Christmas song tag

TTT for December 9
#TopTenTuesday

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Today’s theme is Books Set in Snowy Places.
Snow is not really my thing (I’m already tired of the 8 inches we got last week and which will take for ever to melt…).
BUT we usually associate snow with Christmas,
so I’m going to do the Christmas song tag I saw recently at Readerbuzz, and which was originally created by the host of this Top Ten Tuesday (and she published her post last Friday)!
I’ll try to only pick books read this year.

Click on the covers to read my review
or info on the book

1. “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
Favorite bookish couple

Riko the gamer and her beloved cat Musubi,
in Cat+Gamer, by Wataru Nadatani
Cat + Gamer #5

2. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
Name a book where a character is away from home (school, vacation, etc.)

The Lady Vanishes, by Ethel Lina White
Iris
was on vacation somewhere in EuropeThe Lady Vanishes

3. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Name your favorite “little” book (children’s book, short story, novella, etc.).

Summer Frost by Blake Crouch
was the last awesome scif short-story/novella (85 pages) I read:Summer Frost

4. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town“
What book(s) do you hope Santa brings you this year?

The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories,
edited by Jay Rubin
Though Santa rarely brings me booksThe Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories

5. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
Which book turned your nose red (made you cry)?

Les Ombres du monde, by Michel Bussi
Historical novel based on the Rwanda genocide:Les Ombres du monde

6. “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”
Your favorite book/kind of book to read during the holidays.

This year, I’m listening to
The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, ed. by Otto PenzlerThe Big Book of Christmas mysteries

7. “We Three Kings”
Your favorite trilogy/book from a trilogy
(or feel free to fudge it and pick a book from a series).

Cat Massage Therapy, by Haru Hisakawa
#1 is my favorite of the whole trilogyCat Massage

8. “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”
A character you would love to be snowed in with.

Tove Jansson
in Notes from an Island
She is not a character, she is the author, and she passed away.
Woudl have been nice to spend time with her
on her beloved island.Notes from an Island

9. “Last Christmas”
A book that seriously let you down.

I had to DNF
Empire of the Atom, by A. E. van Vogt
(read another one by him instead)
Empire of the Atom

10. “White Christmas”
An upcoming release you’re dreaming about. 

Platform Decay, by Martha Wells
The next volume in the Murderbot series
to be released on May 5, 2026Platform Decay

 Have YOU read
or are YOU planning to read any of these?
Please leave the link to your own post,
so I can visit
Try the tag!

Spell the month in books: December 2025

    spell-the-month-in-booksSpell the month in books:
December 2025
Click on the logo to join
#SpellTheMonthInBooks

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I discovered this meme thanks to Marianne @ Let’s read.
“The idea is to spell the month using the first letter of book titles”,
and there’s an accompanying theme.

December:
Giftable
Books you would give or would like to receive as a gift

So I am going with books on my TBR.
If you feel like Santa, you are most than welcome to pick one for me. Just kidding.

Dandelion Wine
(The) Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro
(The) Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature
Embers
(The) Maze in the Heart of the Castle
The Big Book of Female Detectives
End of Oulipo?: An Attempt to Exhaust a Movement
Recursion

Spell December

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Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
I’m really impressed by this author, and there’s so much more I want to read by him.
The last I read was The Illustrated Man.
I may actually read Dandelion Wine during #ShortStorySeptember

The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro, by Edogawa Rampo
I was so impressed by The Black Lizard / Beast in the Shadows, so I really want to read more by Edogawa.

The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature,
edited by J. Thomas Rimer
By now, you probably know my love of Japanese lit, so this is a must.
The abridged version is still 896 pages, so it should do it 😉

Embers, by Sándor Márai
I don’t often read Hungarian classics (the last one I read was a classic scifi),
but when I do, I always enjoy them. Time to discover this one soon!

The Maze in the Heart of the Castle, by Dorothy Gilman
I so so enjoyed Gilman’s Mrs Pollifax, I need to read more of her standalones

The Big Book of Female Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler
I’m currently listening to another of his anthologies, The Big Book of Christmas mysteries, and I really enjoy his choice and short introductions before each story, so one day, I’ll get to that one.

End of Oulipo?: An Attempt to Exhaust a Movement,
by Lauren Elkin andVeronica Scott Esposito
I love Oulipo authors, Italo Calvino and Georges Perec for instance, so I need to read these two long essays on the topic.

Recursion, by Blake Crouch
I have enjoyed a few books by Crouch, like Upgrade, so I need to get to this one!

Have YOU read
or are YOU planning to read any of these ?
Please leave the link to your own post,
so I can visit.

2025: November wrap-up

FranceBookToursButton180x180 NOVEMBER 2025 WRAP-UP

Wow, November was busy on the reading and blogging front.
But I had prepared a bit ahead, so I was able to participate in all I wanted and had a blast.
You can see here my recap for #scifmonth, and here for #Nonficnov and #NovellasinNovember.

📚 Here is what I read in November:

16 books 
13 in print 
with 2148 pages, a daily average of 71 pages/day
3 in audio
= 18H37, a daily average of 37 minutes/day
(a bit low, because I am in the middle of a huge audiobook)

5 in science-fiction:

  1. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley – audio
  2. La Guerre des mouches, by Jacques Spitz
  3. Slan, by A. E. Van Vogt – audio
  4. Summer Frost, by Blake Crouch
  5. Randomize, by Andy Weir

5 adenture manga/comics with cats:

  1. Cat Massage Therapy #1, by Haru Hisakawa
  2. Cat Massage Therapy #2, by Haru Hisakawa
  3. Cat Massage Therapy #3, by Haru Hisakawa
  4. Cat + Gamer #5, by Wataru Nadatani
  5. Physics for Cats, by Tom Gauld (more on physics than cats!)

2 in mysteries:

  1. Swan Song (The Listerdale Mystery #12), by Agatha Christie – audio
  2. Dernier cri, by Hervé Commère

1 in poetry:

  1. Kabir: Ecstatic Poems, by Robert Bly

1 in play:

  1. A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams

1 in historical fiction:

  1. Mémoires d’Hadrien, by Marguerite Yourcenar

1 in nonfiction:

  1. The Secret Life of the Owl, by John Lewis-Stempel

And I DNFed two books:
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
Empire of the Atom, by A. E. van Vogt

MY FAVORITE BOOKS THIS PAST  MONTH

Frankenstein  Mémoires d'Hadrien

READING CHALLENGES & OTHER RECAP

📚 Total of books read in 2025 = 141/165
(85%, 9 books behind of schedule for my Goodreads challenge)!!
📚 Classics Club 5th list: 55/100
(from December 2024-until November 2029)
📚  Agatha Christie Short Stories Challenge 2025: 11/12
 
📚 Japanese Literature Challenge: 5/8 books
+ 9 outside the challenge dates + 3 bilingual
📚 Hundred Years Hence Reading Challenge (#HYH25) (hosted by Neeru) = 3/3
📚 BookBound: 8 in 2024, 7 in 2025
📚 Number of books added to my TBR this past month = 15

📚 Compared to my November plans:
really good: I read 5/7 titles.
I DNFed two, but I replace one by another by the same author

  1. My November TBR = 5/7
  2. 1 book for my BookBound project  = in process
  3. From my TBR: 1 book in print 
  4. a book in Spanish/Italian – alternate = in process
  5. From my TBR: the last one I ran into on a blog, etc
  6. From my TBR: from my jar or 1 I recently added to my TBR = 2
  7. From my TBR: 2 classics at least = 7
  8. 1 audiobook in French
  9. 1 for Agatha Christie Short Stories Challenge = 1

📚 In November,
– I traveled to:
Banglandesh, England, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Vietnam, US, and space
– 7 books I read were published between 1448-1951
– I read 5 books in translation (from Japanese and Sadhukkari)
– I read 3 books in French
– 10 books came from my public library

📚 In November:

OTHER BOOKS  REVIEWED THIS PAST MONTH

  The Big Book of Christmas mysteries A Little Tour in France West Wind Entangled Life   Orwell's Roses Artificial Wisdom The Hopkins ManuscriptSwans in Space

MOST POPULAR BOOK REVIEW THIS PAST MONTH

Lean On Me

 click on the cover to access my review
The bots tend to revive my older posts

MOST POPULAR POST THIS PAST MONTH
– NON BOOK REVIEW –

French Bingo 2015 cardOld post, but maybe it can inspire you

BOOK BLOG THAT BROUGHT ME MOST TRAFFIC THIS PAST MONTH

 

Readerbuzz

please click on the banner to go visit this blog, lots of good things there

TOP COMMENTERS 

Marianne at Let’s Read
Deb at Readerbuzz
Tammy at Books, Bones & Buffy
please go and visit them,
they have great blogs

BLOG MILESTONES 

3,244 posts
over 5,270 followers
over 468,700 hits

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Come back on Wednesday to see
my reading plans and events for December!
How was YOUR month of November?